|
Shemini
("The Eighth") - Holiness
The parasha
for this Shabbat is entitled Shemini,
which means "the eighth" and spans Leviticus
chapters nine through eleven. Eight is a significant
number. Eight symbolizes new beginnings, since
seven symbolizes perfection and completion. Something
new was to begin in Israel.
Aaron
and his sons were ordained to the priesthood,
and God decreed it to be a seven-day period of
consecration, during which time they were not
to leave the Tent of Meeting under any circumstances.
Now it was the eighth day, and Moses summoned
them, along with the elders of Israel to come
to the Tent of Meeting. There Aaron offered up
a two-year old Bull as a sin offering for himself
and on behalf of his sons. Following that, a sin
offering, a burnt offering, a peace offering and
a grain offering were all made on behalf of the
entire congregation of Israel. Why all these offerings?
Because God was going to show up in their midst,
and the nation needed to be spiritually and morally
prepared for it. Their sin had to be atoned for
and their lives cleansed of anything that might
hinder fellowship with the Lord. In other words,
consecrated.
There
is, of course, significance in the variety and
the sequence of the offerings in verses three
and four, and all of these offerings pointed to
some facet of the work of Messiah Yeshua on our
behalf. The sin offering was first, as it symbolized
purification, and prefigured Yeshua offering Himself
up on our behalf as payment for the sins of mankind.
The burnt offering was a picture of self-surrender
to the Lord. Yeshua, knowing full well the weight
of what He had to do, prayed that the Father's
will, not His own, be done. The peace offering
symbolizes our being in a right relationship with
Him, and we may think of the Father declaring
that He was well-pleased with Yeshua the Son.
The meal offering, on account of its absence of
leaven, showed the sinlessness of Messiah. Furthermore,
the considerable labor required to produce the
required fine flour prefigured not only Yeshua's
having taken the harder path, the path of suffering,
but the necessity that God's ministers apply diligence
and zeal in their work. His suffering "outside
the camp" as the writer of the letter to
the Messianic Jews pointed out, fulfilled the
burning of the carcasses of the sin offerings
outside the camp (vs. 11). Each offering really
pointed to Messiah.
When Moses
and Aaron emerged from the Tent of Meeting, Aaron
blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord
appeared to them. Fire came forth from God and
consumed the burnt offering and all the fat portions
on the altar, and the people fell on their faces
to worship. What a scene that must have been!
Yet it pales by comparison to the future gathering
portrayed in Revelation chapter seven, when a
multitude beyond number, from every nation, tribe,
people and language are gathered before the Lord
and the Lamb, clothed in white, palm branches
in their hands, praising the Living God. As if
what Yeshua already did for us wasn't enough -
Dayenu - we will experience the very
presence of God when we are gathered in the coming
Kingdom.
Chapter
ten is tragic. After what ought to have been the
happiest occasion of Aaron’s life - consecration
to the High Priesthood of the nation, his two
sons, Nadav and Avihu are struck down. We are
told they each took their censer, put fire beneath
it and offered what the Scriptures call "strange
fire" before Adonai - they performed some
kind of unauthorized rite. On account of that
strange fire, God sent forth fire of His own and
put them to death. What are we to make of the
term "strange fire" (aish zarah)?
Zarah could mean something foreign, illegitimate
or unauthorized. Whether it means they lit their
own fire rather than take fire from the God-approved
altar, or whether it means they offered incense
at whim, at a time or in a manner not sanctioned
by God, or added something foreign to the incense
- the offense was equally serious, and the consequences
were deadly.
Moses
says to Aaron, "It is what Adonai spoke,
saying, "By those who come near Me I will
be treated as holy, and before all the people
I will be honored."" This disregard
for the holiness of God was so serious that Aaron
and his two surviving sons, Elazar and Iytamar
were warned not even to grieve for Nadav and Avihu.
It was so serious that they were not given a burial
or memorial service, but their bodies were removed
to a distant place outside the camp. Then the
Lord warned Aaron that no priest was ever to enter
the Tent of Meeting after having drunk wine or
strong drink. On account of this warning it is
surmised by many scholars that Nadav and Avihu
had been intoxicated when they offered that 'strange
fire". We are never to blur the distinction
between the holy and the profane, between the
clean and the unclean, and being drunk often causes
lapses in judgment.
It appears
that the people of Israel had more reverence for
the Lord than some of the leaders. At the end
of chapter nine the people had fallen on their
faces in awe and worship of the Lord. At the beginning
of chapter ten Aaron’s two sons have no
fear of the Lord. And when we do not reverence
God, we easily become derelict in our duties.
Now lest you look at the death of Nadav and Avihu
as irrelevant to your own life, let me remind
you that we have been declared to be a kingdom
of priests and a holy nation. We dare not be derelict
in our duties. We may not offer the fat of bulls,
lambs and goats on altars, but we have nevertheless
been given directives. We are exhorted to study
the Scriptures, and yet so few Christians and
Messianic Jews are biblically literate. It results
in bad doctrine, false teachings and devastated
lives. We are commanded to openly testify to our
faith in Yeshua, and yet so few Christians and
Messianic Jews make the effort to tell others
the Good News. We are enjoined to be cheerful,
generous givers, and yet statistically only a
small percentage of those who claim to be born-again
followers of Yeshua tithe, let alone give of their
talents and time and energy for the bettering
of their congregations. This trend tells me that
even among God’s people there is little
yirat Adonai - fear of the Lord.
Chapter
eleven is dedicated to dietary matters. If you
want meat for dinner, the animal had to have split
hooves and have chewed the cud. If you wanted
fish for dinner, the fish had to have had both
fins and scales. No ham sandwiches, and no oysters
on the half shell. If you felt like having foul
for dinner, forget about the vulture, the eagle,
the buzzard, the owl and the ostrich. What do
all these animals have in common? They eat unclean
and/or dead things. If you, in turn, eat them,
you become unclean. Even touching their carcasses
rendered a man unclean until evening. The continuing
principle was holiness - separation. Israel was
not to imitate the nations. A holy people were
required to have a holy diet.
How are
we as followers of Yeshua to understand these
kosher laws? Remember, we are a special community
with a special calling - to reach out to the Jewish
people with the Good News about Messiah, and conduct
ourselves in such a way to encourage them in their
Jewish identity. Some Messianic Jews want to identify
with this aspect of their Jewish heritage, and
we want to encourage them, and not make it hard
for them.
Even
though you may know that you have the freedom
to eat anything you want, you do not have the
freedom, for example, to eat anything in the presence
of another that will cause their conscience problems.
When, for example, we ask that no one bring treif
(unkosher food) to the onegs, it is not because
we take some weird delight in telling you what
you can or can't eat. It's because people have
differing convictions on what is or isn't permissible
to eat, and we want to foster an atmosphere free
from strife.
Rabbi
Paul went to considerable lengths in Romans 14
to stress the necessary balance between individual
liberty in the Lord and mutual respect for others
of differing convictions - particularly
on secondary issues. And knowing how prideful
and strident we can be, he said, "for the
kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."
But holiness,
God's holiness and our call to holiness, is an
eternal principle. It seems to me if we fix our
eyes on Yeshua, that holiness will come, our love
will abound, and our duties be fulfilled.
Shalom,
Rabbi Glenn
|
